Vision, Systems, and Sustainability: Inside the ABA Business Journey of April and Stephen Smith
April and Stephen Smith share how to build, grow, and sustain an ethical ABA practice with vision, systems, and the courage to lead with your values.
Vision, Systems, and Sustainability: Inside the ABA Business Journey of April and Stephen Smith
Most BCBAs® who start their own practice do so because they looked around at what existed and thought, "I can do this better." April Smith thought the same thing. She had been in the field since 1995, had worked across multiple ABA organizations in the Northern Virginia area, and was frustrated by what she found. So she and her husband Stephen went for a walk, made a decision, and started their own ABA practice
In a recent episode of In the Field: The ABA Podcast, I sat down with April and Stephen Smith, co-founders of 3PieSquared and hosts of the ABA Business Leaders Podcast. April is a BCaBA with nearly three decades of experience, and Stephen comes from a background in quality management and auditing. Together they ran an ABA practice for 12 years before transitioning into consulting, where they now support more than 1,600 ABA organizations across the country.
You Need a Vision Before You Need Anything Else
When Allyson asked April and Stephen what their original vision for the business looked like, Stephen paused and said, "I think that's part of the problem. We didn't really have one." They both agreed they wanted to build a small ABA practice. The issue was that Stephen's version of small meant 10 clinics and April's meant 10 employees. It was not until year four that they actually sat down and got specific about what they were building and why.
This is one of the first things they now work on with every business owner they consult. Before policies, before hiring, before insurance credentialing: what do you want this to look, feel, and sound like? How big is too big? Is this your retirement plan, or something you plan to hand off? As Stephen puts it, if you do not know how it ends, you do not know where you are going.
Hiring BCBAs®: The Gaps That Catch Owners Off Guard
April and Stephen both assumed that once they brought on BCBAs, staff would simply know what to do. What they found instead were real, consistent gaps. Stephen noticed that some BCBAs® came in knowing only one assessment tool, and sometimes that was not the tool a particular funder would accept. Many avoided parent training whenever possible. Stephen also points out that soft skills, things like time management and giving constructive feedback to RBTs®, were not a given just because someone had passed their board exam.
This is a field-wide issue. The certification process prepares BCBAs® for clinical work, but running a team, managing performance, and navigating family relationships are separate skill sets. April and Stephen had to build systems to identify those gaps early and support staff through them, and they now help other practice owners do the same.
Building Systems That Let You Step Away
April's advice for building operational systems is grounded in the same behavioral thinking many BCBAs already apply clinically: write task analyses for roles, define expectations in observable and measurable terms, and give feedback consistently. It does not have to be a polished manual from day one. It just has to exist. She comes back to a Brené Brown quote she returns to often: clear is kind.
Stephen adds that by year four or five, owners should not be doing the day-to-day grind anymore. They should be focused on improving existing systems and the quality of life for their staff. Getting there requires building infrastructure early, even when it feels premature.
Outsourcing and Hiring: A Framework for What Comes First
Stephen's answer to the outsourcing question starts with two non-negotiables: get an accountant and get an attorney before you think you need them. After that, the question becomes what the owner dislikes doing or finds consistently difficult. The goal is to map out what a dream version of the job looks like, then identify what is standing between the owner and that version. That gap is the hiring roadmap.
He is also clear that timing matters financially. Billing is one of the first things owners want to hand off, but the real question is whether the hours you are spending on it are worth more than what outsourcing costs. Are you still an effective clinician working 70 hours a week? Is your family okay with it? Those are the questions that actually drive the decision.
Profitability Is an Ethical Issue
The incentive structure in ABA right now, Stephen explains, is backwards. A practice can be more profitable with less-trained staff and higher turnover, and that dynamic is exactly what April and Stephen have built their consulting work to push back against. April came into running a practice with almost no financial orientation, felt uncomfortable collecting co-pays, and wanted to do good work and let the money sort itself out. What she learned over time is that revenue is not about personal worth. It is about what that revenue makes possible.
She frames it this way: you cannot pour back into your team, fund meaningful training, or pay staff well if your margins do not support it. Owners who take contracts that lose money because it feels mission-driven often end up with burned-out staff, high turnover, and compromised services. When April and Stephen were approached by private equity during the sale process, they said no, and eventually chose to close rather than hand the practice to someone who did not share their values.
What Closing a Business Actually Feels Like
April does not skip over what it was like to close their practice. She describes it as an identity crisis, comparing it to an empty nester suddenly asking who they are without the thing that defined their days. She could not bring herself to pass it to someone she was not sure would do it as well as she had, so they closed.
She wants other owners to know that transition is coming, whether the business ends through a sale, a closure, or a handoff, and that the personal dimension of it deserves as much planning as the operational one. Her advice is to build a life and identity that exists alongside your business, not just inside it, long before you need to step away.
Setting Boundaries and Modeling Them
Early on, their clinic operated in a reactive mode: calls and texts at all hours and a constant sense that something always needed attention. April made a decision to change that, communicated the expectation to her team, and stuck to it even when it was uncomfortable. A BCBA on staff was initially frustrated when April did not respond to late-night messages, but told her the next day that she respected it, and that it gave her permission to set her own limits with the families she served.
That one decision shifted the culture of the entire clinic. April applies the same thinking to her schedule as a parent: sometimes trying harder is not the answer. Sometimes the answer is making a clear decision about what you are doing in a given window of time, protecting it, and letting go of the rest.
Therapy, Self-Reflection, and the Business Owner's Inner Work
Both April and Stephen mention therapy more than once, and they mean it. Stephen acknowledges that business owners tend to be control-oriented by nature, and that for many of them the business is not just a job. The clients feel like family, and letting someone else take over any part of that is genuinely hard.
April adds that therapy or coaching can help owners stay connected to who they are outside of their business role. She is not prescriptive about the format, but she is clear about the need: if you are building something that touches people's lives as deeply as ABA does, you need support for your own.
Key Takeaways
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Vision is foundational. Define what you are building and how big you want it to be before you are years in and wondering why you feel stuck.
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Profitability supports ethics. You cannot invest in training, staff, or quality without financial sustainability. Running a solvent practice is part of ethical practice.
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Systems make everything else possible. Use the behavioral thinking you already have: task analyses, clear expectations, consistent feedback, and regular check-ins.
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BCBAs® are not automatically ready to lead or manage. Build mentorship and soft skills development into your supervision structure from the start.
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Closing or exiting a business is a personal transition, not just an operational one. Plan for it early, on both levels.
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Boundaries matter, and modeling them matters more. When leaders hold their own limits, they give their teams permission to do the same.
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Self-awareness is not optional. Knowing when you are micromanaging, when you need support, and when your identity has become too tangled with your business is part of sustainable leadership.
Connect with April and Stephen Smith
Resources
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Podcast: ABA Business Leaders Podcast
Keep the Conversation Going
Building an ethical ABA practice is not just a clinical challenge. It is a personal one, and most owners are navigating it without a roadmap. To hear the full conversation with April and Stephen Smith, listen to this episode of In the Field: The ABA Podcast. For more tools and resources on supervision, training, and professional development, visit Sidekick Learning.
For more resources on onboarding, supervision, and staff development, visit Sidekick Learning.
